Django! (Unchained)

Please pardon the title of this post, I know it's completely bad. But it actually does fit.

About 2-3 weeks ago, a man came into the office with the cutest little 2-3 month old pitbull (mix?) puppy. He wasn't treating it great, the poor thing was so scared he peed there on the floor. Upon closer inspection, he had a partially embedded collar, and was pretty thin and malnourished. I wasn't there at the time, but long story short, animal control got involved and the man was investigated.

The puppy stayed at the clinic for a few days until I felt bad for him and brought him home one night so he wouldnt have to be cooped up in the kennel all the time. A coworker brought him home that weekend, and then I started bringing him home any night I was at the office. Naturally we grew attached. Doc gave him his first set of booster shots and some flea treatment.

Well things have finally been figured out regarding his owner, and guess what... we're keeping him! The last thing we needed was another critter, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And he's just the sweetest little thing.

His neck is almost completely healed up, just waiting on the fur to grow back now. He's gained some weight, and the issue with his "wrist" joint seems to be remedying itself with proper nutrition and exercise. He does snort a lot still though, but I think thats just him! He's starting to understand that he's supposed to go potty outside, he just hasn't realized he should TELL us to let him out yet.

He runs around like a crazy one minute, then flops down on your lap and falls asleep the next. He really is a big 'ol lap dog, just wants to be next to people all the time. We'll see how that goes when he weighs 70 pounds!

Anyway, this was pretty much just an excuse to show off this cutie we came into possession of. He's just the cutest, aint he?! Thats Django!

Honey Lime Tilapia

So its been a very long time since my last post. I chock that up to being very, very busy. 17 credit hours on top of my new job at the vet clinic on top of tutoring... barely enough time to sleep and bathe, let alone blog. But I had some time this weekend, so I wanted to share this one with you guys.

So this one was kind of me just throwing stuff together and hoping for the best, but it turned out pretty good so I'll share!

What You'll Need:

• 3-4 Tilapia filets
• 1/4 cup Honey
• 2 tsp minced Garlic
• 1 tsp minced Onion (I used dried)
• 1 Lime
• Pinch of Rosemary
• Kosher Salt (or regular would work too, I just prefer using Kosher since its larger grain)
• Pepper
• Med-Large size Bowl

Add Honey, Garlic, Rosemary, and Onion to bowl. Mix well.

Take your Lime, cut it in half. Squeeze one half into the bowl and mix. Save the other half. Set aside.

Take your fish filets. I usually give them a rinse under the sink just to get any sliminess off. You can pat it dry if you want, I didnt because I'm lazy. Rub salt and pepper on to taste. Then put them in the bowl with the sauce stuff. Smoosh it around so they're all covered in it, then let marinate for at least an hour. Dont worry, I'll wait here. -whistles-

Ah, you're back! Nice to see you again. So now that your fish has marinated...

Take a baking dish. I prefer glass, but whatever works. Also you might notice in the photos, I used a pie pan. Because my baking dish was dirty. Eh, it is what it is!

Grease that baby up. I like to use coconut oil, but whatever works for you.

Put your fish in the dish (hey, that rhymed!)

And this is where the other half of your lime comes in. Cut thin slices of it and place a slice on each filet. Fancy!

And might as well dump the rest of the marinade on top. Hey, live a little! ;)

Toss the squeezed lime and whatevers left of what you cut slices off of into the compost. You can read all about my Vermiculture Bin pictured to the right.

Anyway, pop those fishies in the oven and let 'em bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until flaky.

(See that pan on the bottom rack? Read all about my Adventures in Baking Dirt, coming soon.)

In the meantime, get some sides going. Rice is generally a must with fish like this (plus fills you up more), and I made some broccoli as well. Notice my super ghetto method of covering my pots. A stock pot lid, and a small frying pan act as covers. Because I'm classy as all get-out.

Your fish is done! Looks pretty tasty, huh? Stick those puppies on a plate and enjoy!

I'd love feedback! Have you ever made anything similar? Any alterations you'd make? Have you tried it and liked it? Hated it? Let me know!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate!

I've been in Missouri visiting family over winter break. Gotta love it!

I have several posts in the works, but didn't bring my computer with me, so they'll have to wait til I get back home in Tallahassee.

Vanillekipferln: German Almond Crescent Cookies

I'm here to let you in on a little secret of mine.

Are you ready?

Are you SUUUURE?

Ok..

I make the best cookies ever.

Ok, that might be a bit of an overstatement. But seriously these cookies are so good. They're requested every Christmas by all the family, and sometimes I make them throughout the year just for myself!

They're an old German recipe, often made during the Holidays. I used to make them to sell for the German Club before things went to sh*t there. Anyway they're seriously tasty. Of course, anything this delicious isnt exactly the most healthy, but hey, its Christmastime, who's keeping track? ;)

What You'll Need:

• 1 cup Butter, room temp
• 2/3 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp Almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups Flour
• ~ 1 cup Almonds (slivered work best)
• Powdered / Confectioners Sugar (for dusting)
• Food processor (optional)
• A large bowl
• Mixer (optional, I've done it by hand with a fork before)

Now please note in the photos of the preparation, I made a TRIPLE recipe of these because I wanted to have enough to go around. (Thats how good these things are!) They already make a fairly large batch, so just be aware. Alright then, on we go..

First things first, the almonds. Now I know the ingredients says 1 cup, but a little extra definitely wont hurt. I usually just get these 1 1/3 cup bags and use the whole bag. (In this case, I had a 1 1/3 cup bag and a 1 2/3 cup bag, giving me 3 cups for 3 batches.)

Grind them up fairly small in a food processor. Now, back when I lived in a dorm and didnt have a food processor, I just smashed the almonds by hand and that worked fine, the dough was just very crumbly. So whatever works.

Add your 1 cup of butter (yes, that is a lot of butter) and 2/3 cup of sugar in the bowl and cream them together. The mixture should get fairly fluffy, but not overly so or you'll end up with very crumbly cookies.

Then add a tablespoon of vanilla extract, and a tablespoon and a half of almond extract. Mix these in well. Starting to smell good, huh!!

At this point I realized I needed a much bigger bowl if my triple batch was going to fit...

Ok, now this part can be a little difficult. Add the 2 1/2 cups of flour and the chopped up almonds and mix it all together as best as you can. It might be too tough for a mixer (mine definitely couldnt handle it, but yours might be higher quality..)

The dough you end up with will be crumbly, but the butter should hold it together nicely when you go to shape it. If seems too sticky, add a little more flour.

It would be around this time I would suggest preheating the oven to 350.

And here comes the fun part; time to get messy!

Take about a tablespoon or so of the dough. Roll it into a ball, making sure to squish it so it holds together nicely. Yes, you're going to get greasy.

Now take that ball and roll it between your hands to make a log shape. It should be about 2 inches long and about 1/2 inch thick. Gently fold that log into a crescent shape, as shown.

Lay those puppies out on a slightly greased cookie sheet. They dont spread a whole lot. but try and leave some space between them. The ones I have below are probably a little too close together, but I was trying to fit as many as I could since I was making such a huge batch.

Pop those puppies in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. They're not going to brown too much unless they're burnt, but they'll be darker than the dough.

I didnt get a photo of them out of the oven, so you'll have to use your imagination on this one. Put them on a cooling rack for a while until cool to the touch. Sometimes I leave them a little warm still so the powdered sugar sticks better, but its really up to you.

Roll the cooled cookies in powdered sugar. Eat the broken ones. This part is mandatory. There will be no sub-standard cookies here.

Aaaand they're done! Give them out to all your friends and relatives, they're sure to delight. OR just eat them all yourself, I've done that one too!

DIY T-Shirt Bracelet #2

So I promised in my last post that I'd talk about the other version of the t-shirt bracelets I made next time. Well that was like 2 weeks ago, and I'm finally getting around to doing just that! Things have been hectic around here with Finals week coming up and such so I havent really had the time.

If you want to read about how I made the first version, you can do so here.

So lets get started on the loopy version 2! (Ignore my terribly chipped nails please! I'm way too impatient to ever let them dry all the way and they ALWAYS get messed up!!)

I used the same sort of strips in this one as the last one. Take your old t-shirt and cut off the bottom hem. Then cut strips about 1/2 - 1 inch wide across the bottom. I cut these at one side so they would be one long strip instead of a circle. Then grab both ends and stretch the strip out to make it longer and sort of curl up. My strips ended up being about 4 ft. long. You can see one in the photo below.

Now you're going to want to make a small hole in one end of the strip. Just fold over the very tip and cut a small snip on the fold.

Take the un-snipped end and feed it through the snipped end to make a loop. Pull the end though the hole until you have about 4-5 inches out.

Now just coil up the remainder of the loop by twisting/folding so it is a bunch of loops laying on top of eachother. The number of times you can do this depends on the length of your strip and how big around it needs to be to slide it over your hand and to your wrist. Remember the fabric will stretch some, so dont worry too much about it fitting over your hand, just make it the tightness you want it to lay on your wrist.

Now you're going to take the excess fabric you pulled through and wrap it around the loops to hold it all together. Start off a little bit away from the base of where your excess goes through the hole, then wrap towards the base until you have the end of the side with the hole completely covered. Leave a little bit of the end unwrapped. About 1 - 1.5 inch will do. You might want to give the loops a bit of a twist here so they hold together a little better in the finished product. Unless you want it to look like all separate strands, in which case, dont! Itall depends on what you want it to look like!

 Find the needle with the biggest hole you have. Feed the end of your unwrapped fabric through this hole like you would thread. (This is where that big hole come in handy.)

Now you're going to secure the end by pushing the needle through the coils of itself where it is wrapped around, and pull it through. Be careful to only go under the coils, but not stab through any of the fabric, because then your strip wont fit!

Pull it pretty tight and snip off the extra fabric.

And now you're done! The finished product should look something like mine below. You can kind of see how I had twisted the strands together so they wouldnt flap apart in the earlier step. If you want to extra secure where it is held together, put a dab of hot glue on the end. Depending on how tightly you wrapped it around you may or may not need this.

Here it is paired with the braided version I did in the first post!

For reference, my boyfriend got the one I made for him very dirty at a construction job. Since it was made of t-shirt material, I figured I could just pop it in the wash along with laundry and it would be fine. Good news: both versions held up great after going through the wash. So if you ever need to clean yours, just throw it in the laundry!

I'd love to hear about and see any versions you make! If you have any other suggestions for what I can do with the rest of my t-shirt, please let me know! I love feedback!